At the start of spring training I gazed into my crystal ball and rubbed it hard like a brand new baseball and asked, “truly great seer, are the Boston Red Sox really the team of the future?” And the crystal ball prophesied that all this great talent might, in time, slide right through our fingers.

And the reason is that the Sox have a strong nucleus of young players but management has failed to sign any of thesefuture stars to multi-year deals. In fact, 51% of the team’s salary is gobbled up by just 5 players, Price, Ramirez, Porcello, Pedroia, and Kimbrell, all who may have left their best baseball days behind in the dugout. The average age of this group is 32 and with the Sox shelling out the third largest payroll in MLB, what’s left over for the kids? Let’s check out this bottleneck of talent.

At age 34, Pedey is wrapped up till 2022 raking in $16.125/ season playing on two bad knees with limited range and declining power.

Hanley, cursed with the same name as one of the great hitters and greater flakes in baseball history is coming off the worst offensive season of his career to the tune of $22.75 m/year. All that cheese for 23 homers and 62 RBIs and rumor has it he’s fooling around with the TB12 diet. God help us.

David Price is signed until 2023 and his middle name ain’t Bargain. Last year’s injury plagued season cost the Sox $30 M.

And Rick Porcello lost 17 games and the Sox dished out $21.125 M for his 11 victories.

In 2020 the team will not find Sales’ price in the discount bin. But paired with David Price, can the Sox afford the two highest paid pitchers in baseball?

For sure Scott Boras will want that career deal for Xander Bogaerts in 2020. He’s in his prime and considering that Zack Cozart got 3 years at $38 M, the X Man will desire that long term deal at $20 M/ yr.

Mookie and JBJ Jr are free agents in 2021 and while Jackie is a great defensive CF, players make the bucks with the bat and Mookie Betts looks to cash in big. If Betts makes his $34m/ yr can the Sox handle the 3 highest salaries in baseball with Betts, Sales, and Price, on the books, and keep Benintendi around after 2023?

The Boston Red Sox are rich in weath and wealthy in talent but this good fortune may turn out to be a house of cards.